Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-09
POWDERLY Philippe.
His Speech to the Gathering eff Knights at
Harrisburg.

Harrisburg.
HARRISBURG, Pa, April Sat meet
ing last night of the delegates represent
ing the Knights of Labor of Pennsylvania
who were assembled for the purpose of
considering the various labor bills pend
ing before the Legislature, Grand Master
Workman PoWderly spoke as follows
81 read of the result of the elections in
Chicago the other day and
was glad to see and hear the
Workingmen in that great city were
good enough to throw the lie back
into the faces of those who passed as
their friends and representatives. No
sooner did the anarchist ticket 60 before
the people than its supporters said: 'We
will carry the ticket through under the
flag on whose face not one star glistens,
nor one stripe is to be found,
and the teachings of such
men as PoWderly and Grifiths
will have no weight with u.s. But they
found on election day that anarchy was
showed under as it was never showed
under before, and 1 say amen to that
every time. Great applause. did not
know but what in decorating this hall
you might forget to place an American flag
on the wall. 1 brought this with me.
T Here Mr.. PoWderly exhibited flag,
amid tremendous applausel, and
brought 1t here, so that if we were
charged that we were not Americans
that there was q don't care where l was
born, | don't care where the rest of you
were BORN, that there was one who sWOre
by that flag and no other Here Mr..
Powderly presented the flag to M. A.
Burke of Carbondale, an old friend.) Let
them tomorrow morning after those out
bursts of applause charge US with being
anything else but free born American
citizens, and those manifestations which
YOU have now given expression to will be
the reputation of that lie which will ring
down the centuries in condemnation
of the red flag. Now, my brothers, we
are here, and we will stand or fall by the
sentiments l have given utterance to.
We are here as Americans, to watch
American legislation in the interest of
American people and in our American
way, and also to say that those men who
assembled 100 years ago in the
city of Philadelphia and gave out
the Declaration of independence
to the world were right when they de-
clared that all men were created free and
equal and endowed with certain inalien-
able rights. We believe that they told
the truth and that it still continues to be
the truth, instead of a living lie, as
some of these men would have the
people believe. Applause. We
can do this without being anarch
lists, and do it without becoming
partisans, and without being tied to the
chariot wheels of either of the old Demo
cratic or Republican parties. Applause.
1t was now an impossibility for the
mechanic to earn enough by his own labor
to support his family. He had to call in
the help of his wife and children. He
wanted barrier between a life
of shame and life of virtuous
industry of greater than so cents day.
Children should be taken off the coal
breaker and kept at school until sixteen
years old. The republic could not exist
on a foundation of ignorance, vice and
crime. industrial schools should be es-
tablisned, and the hands and brain edu-
Gated at the same time. The Legislature
q few years ago would not have paid the
slightest attention to q labor Organiza-
ton, but now the Knights of Labor could
defeat any candidate, and so word to
the wise in this legislation would be sui
ficient." He said thebOy colt was wrong
for the man that was bOycotted, and
so was blacklisting wrong for the man
that made the blacklist. He did not be-
lieve in either, but he believed in arbi-
tration and he would make it COmpul-
sorry.
The FtDast RazOra an the World